Abstract
This chapter explains what the rare earth elements are, where and when they were discovered, and by whom. The name of each element is explained (as the elemental names are rather exotic), the misleading name for these metals, which suggests that they are rare (which they are not), is clarified, and the fact that they are not earth metals is established. The alkaline earth metals constitute group IIA in the periodic system, consisting of Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, and Ra; the rare earth elements are transition metals (group IIIB).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Born: Åbo [now Turku], Finland, 5 June 1760; died: Wirmo, Finland, 15 August 1852.
- 2.
Gadolinite is a silicate with the formula (Ce,La,Nd,Y)2FeBe2Si2O10. Reference: Mindat.org.
- 3.
Ytterby: pronounce the “y” as the “e” in “to be”, and the “e”, as the “e” in “the”. The last syllable should be stressed.
- 4.
Abundance: The abundance of a chemical element measures how relatively common (or rare) the element is, or how much of the element is present in a given environment by comparison to all other elements. Crustal abundance of an element is the estimate of the average concentration of that element in the continental crust.
- 5.
Gadolinite is currently differentiated in Gadolinite-(Ce) and Gadolinite-(Y), according to the most commonly occurring REE in the mineral. See also Mindat.org.
- 6.
The names were originally Praseodidymium and Neodidymium. The syllable di was later skipped (Gupta and Krishnamurthy 2005).
References
Auer von Welsbach C (1883) Über die Erden des Gadolinits von Ytterby. Monatshefte für Chemie und verwandter Teile anderer Wissenschaften 4(1):630–642 (now Chem. Monthly)
Auer von Welsbach C (1885) Die Zerlegung des Didyms in seine Elemente. Monatshefte für Chemie und verwandter Teile anderer Wissenschaften 6(1):477–491
Cleve PT (1879) Sur Le Scandium. Comptes rendus hebd séances acad sci, Paris 89:419–422
de Marignac JG (1878) Sur l’ytterbine, nouvelle terre contenue dans la gadolinite. Comptes rendus hebd séances acad sci, Paris 78:578–581
Dean PB, Dean KI (1996) Sir Johan Gadolin of Turku: the grandfather of gadolinium. Acad Radiol 3(2):S165–S169
Forvo; http://www.forvo.com/word/ytterby. Pronunciation of the name Ytterby
Gadolin J (1794) Undersökning av en svart tong stenart ifran Ytterby stenbrott i Roslagen, Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademien, Handlingar, pp 137–155
Gadolin J (1796) Von einer schwarzen, schweren Steinart aus Ytterby Steinbruch in Roslagen in Schweden, Crell’s Annalen, (also: “Chemische Annalen für die Freunde der Naturlehre, Arzneygelährtheit, Haushaltungskunst und Manufacturen”, or just “Chemischen Annalen”), pp 313–329. See for an online version: http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10072281_00321.html?contextType=ocr
Geschneider KA (2011) The rare earth crisis—the supply/demand situation for 2010–2015. Mater Matters 6(2):32–41
Google Maps (2015) https://maps.google.com/
Gupta CK, Krishnamurthy N (2005) Extractive metallurgy of the rare earths. CRC Press, Boca Raton, 484 pp
Harkins WD (1917) The evolution of the elements and the stability of complex atoms. I. A new periodic system which shows a relation between the abundance of the elements and the structure of the nuclei of atoms. J Am Chem Soc 39(5):856–879
Haxel GB, Boore S, Mayfield S (2005) U.S. geological survey. Fact Sheet 087-02. Rare earth elements—critical resources for high technology. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/. Retrieved Oct 2014
Hisinger W (1838) Analyser af några svenska mineralier. 2. Basiskt Fluor-Cerium från Bastnäs. Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar 187-1891 (as Basiskfluor-cerium). (In Swedish)
Human Touch of Chemistry. http://www.humantouchofchemistry.com/famous.php?action=view&nid=859. Accessed July 2014
Marinsky JA, Glendenin LE, Coryell CD (1947) The chemical identification of radioisotopes of Neodymium and of element 61. J Am Chem Soc 69(11):2781–2785
McLennan SM (2012) Geology, geochemistry, and natural abundances of the rare earth elements. In: Atwood DA (ed) The rare earth elements—fundamentals and applications. Wiley, New York, pp 1–19
Mindat.org (http://mindat.org). Several references from this website: http://www.mindat.org/loc-3191.html, Gadolinite-Ce: http://www.mindat.org/min-1627.html, Gadolinite-Y: http://www.mindat.org/min-1628.html
Murphy CJ (2006) Charles James, B. Smith Hopkins, and the Tangled Web of Element 61. Bull Hist Chem 31(1):9–18
Nilson LF (1879a) Sur l’ytterbine, terre nouvelle de M. Marignac. Comptes rendus hebd séances acad sci, Paris 88:642–647
Nilson LF (1879b) Über Scandium, ein neues Erdmetall. Ber Dtsch Chem Ges 12(1):554–557
Oddo G (1913) Die Molekularstruktur der radioaktiven Atome. Journ Chim Phys 260–268
Royal Society of Chemistry. http://www.rsc.org. Data Retrieved Aug 2014
Soret JL (1879) Sur le spectre des terres faisant partie du groupe de l’yttria. Comptes rendus hebd séances acad sci, Paris 90(11):521–523
Szabadvary F (1988) The history of the discovery and separation of the rare earths. In: Gschneider Jr KA, Eyring L (eds) Handbook on the physics and chemistry of the rare earths, vol 11. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 33–80
van der Krogt PCJ (2014a) The discovery and naming of the rare earths, at http://elements.vanderkrogt.net/rareearths.php. In: Elementymology and elements multidict. http://elements.vanderkrogt.net/index.php. Accessed July 2014
van der Krogt PCJ (2014b) Photographs of the Ytterby quarry. Courtesy Peter and René van der Krogt, Delft. See also http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/indexes.php
Weeks ME (1968) Discovery of the Elements (7th edition, Ch. 16). J Chem Educ Am Chem Soc 667–699
Wikipedia (2014) Abundance of elements in Earth’s crust. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%27s_crust. Accessed Oct 2014. See also U.S. Geological Survey (2005)
Wikipedia (2015) Johann Gadolin
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Voncken, J.H.L. (2016). The Rare Earth Elements—A Special Group of Metals. In: The Rare Earth Elements. SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26809-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26809-5_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-26807-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-26809-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)